Sydney City Tour

Over the past five days, out group learned a lot from our Sydney tour guide, Pam, in Australia’s largest and oldest city. Pam often spoke about the original landing of the Englishmen on Australian soil and their impact on the aboriginals who welcomed them to their lands. She told us how the English brought over boatloads of convicts, settlers, and government officials to begin construction on the settlement of the new land. She told us how the convicts worked to build their own shelter which still stands today along the coastline of Sydney’s harbor and is still home to Australians living within the city. Pam told us how the harbor bridge, one of Sydney’s most iconic sites, was also one of the city’s biggest accomplishments as it finally connected both sides of the harbor allowing free trade across the harbor which boosted the flow of money in and around the city. One of my favorite facts I learned from Pam was that in Sydney no one, no matter how much you pay for your home, can have property leading up to the harbor. This means the land from the harbor and 20 meters inland is public and cannot be built on. I think this is a great feature to the city and is extremely important; this is one of the many things that makes the city so great. You can walk from one side of harbor to the other all along the public pathways making it a great place to go for a walk or run at any time of the day. Additionally, during our Opera House tour, our guide told us how the construction ended up taking 7 more years than originally planned to complete and additional hundreds of millions of dollars. She also explained how the ceramic roof was built to withstand all the natural elements of the sky and sea so it would not erode away. The tile also gives it a very pleasing look; even from far away you can easily see this Australian landmark. Overall, in our tours through Sydney our group learned a lot about the city’s birth and present-day preservation. It was a great city to see and I hope to be back someday.

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